Taza is a partnership between the Tsuut'ina Nation and Canadian real estate developer Canderel. As one of the largest First Nation developments in North America, Taza is made up of three new community villages in Southern Alberta intended to bring economic prosperity to the nation.

Developing residential and commercial buildings on Nation land remains a sensitive topic. As a result, the Taza team and my team at Evans Hunt chose to work closely throughout the design process.

With Indigenous representation on their board, we had the confidence of working alongside trusted experts to guide us through this impactful project.

A public survey to assess interest in the new communities revealed inappropriate comments directed at the project and its stakeholders. 🚩

We understood the Nation initiated the project; however, this wasn’t publicly known. My team recommended designing a custom, single website to prevent misinformation that would allow the parent brand and the three communities to coexist seamlessly.

I facilitated two workshops with the Taza team to ensure they had equal voice in the design process.

Incorporating cultural education and respect.

Having been trained in trauma-informed research, I spoke about the importance of transparency.

I proposed a dedicated section on the website that outlined the land lease details, guided residents and visitors on respecting the Nation’s land, and celebrated cultural influences, including architectural design.

I was grateful to hear the Board of Directors at Taza approved my idea. Collaboratively, we decided on the nav label "Tsuut’ina Partnership" with the following sub-pages:

/ Respecting the Land & Culture
/ Sustainability
/ Tsuut’ina Pride
/ Leasehold Land

Taking a break to celebrate.

Amid our work, I was invited to join the festivities of The Shops at Buffalo Run Grand Opening; phase 1 of the first Taza community.

A whole new website.

As an output from the content mapping workshop, I was able to provide content blueprints for every unique page on the new site, which required net-new content from our clients.

We successfully worked in a collaboration tool, Content Workflow (formally known as Gather Content), with the Taza Marketing Manager to capture all of their team’s content, images and assets to ours based on my page designs.

This tool allowed our clients access the new copy and comment in real time.

Work in progress ✍🏼

Final Designs

led by the Creative Director + Art Director.

"Design with people, not just for them."

— The Service Design Playbook,
Government Communications and Public Engagement,
British Columbia

Going forward

I am honored to have led the UX for this project and hope I effectively represented the needs of the Tsuut’ina Nation. I wish the Taza team continued success in their upcoming home sales.

Our clients would be responsible for ongoing maintenance. Therefore, the website was intentionally designed for longevity and flexibility (accounting for future content).

Video by ROAM Creative + Evans Hunt for Taza Development Corp.

Banner image by ROAM Creative for Taza Development Corp.

Interested in more case studies?